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Description:
We'd characterize ourselves as witty, hilarious, and—of course—fashion forward. But is that direct...or indirect characterization? We're afraid of clowns, so we've never watched this one. Can you take a look and let us know?
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:13
Meet Explaino the Clown.
- 00:15
Well, okay…you can’t really meet him, because…he’s just a character in this video. [Boy watching a video of Explaino the Clown]
- 00:19
It would be tough to get together with him at Starbucks for a latte.
- 00:22
Still…when writing about a character, you need to be able to make them seem real. [Door bell rings and Explaino the Clown appears]
Full Transcript
- 00:27
Sometimes a writer just flat out tells their reader what characters are like…
- 00:31
…but more often, characters are revealed bit by bit, throughout the course of a story. [Explaino the Clown made out of jigsaw pieces]
- 00:35
So…how does a writer tell us about a character without, um…telling us about them?
- 00:40
Well….let’s just have Explaino take it from here. It is kind of his specialty… [Explaino approaches a circus tent]
- 00:41
Hiya, kids!
- 00:47
Who’d like to have fun with characterization?? Oh. Nobody? [Explaino asking kids about characterization and boy runs away scared]
- 00:52
Well, just hang in there with me.
- 00:55
If you’re not having fun by the end of this video, I’ll make you a balloon animal.
- 00:59
All right… so there are basically two ways
- 01:01
to convey to a reader some of the essential aspects of a character.
- 01:06
The direct method…and the indirect method. [Explaino talking about direct and indirect methods of characterization]
- 01:10
The direct method is called direct characterization.
- 01:14
The indirect method is called—you guessed it—indirect characterization.
- 01:20
Having fun yet? Hm. Okay…
- 01:23
We learn a lot about characters by what they say.
- 01:27
We get other clues by how they dress and how they look. [Man with arms crossed making weird face]
- 01:30
Like… just by looking at me, you can probably guess that I don’t spend too many evenings
- 01:36
going to the opera… … but I’m totally cool with taking a pie in the face. [Pie hits Explaino in the face]
- 01:41
Yeah. You’d be right on both counts.
- 01:44
Sometimes, we learn about a character by reading what other characters say about them.
- 01:49
There are always people talking behind my back. [People talking about Explaino behind his back]
- 01:52
I’m sure they’re only saying nice things…
- 01:55
We also get a lot of insight into a character when their thoughts and feelings get aired.
- 02:00
If a writer tells us that a character feels invisible… [Boy standing and people walking past ignoring him]
- 02:03
…we can deduce that they probably feel small, alone and lost in the world…
- 02:08
…and that they’re afraid no one listens to them or takes them seriously.
- 02:12
Which means they’re likely depressed. So…the writer didn’t come out and say
- 02:17
“So and so is depressed.”
- 02:19
But by giving us a window into their thoughts, we can arrive at that conclusion. [Boy walks home in the rain]
- 02:24
But just like in real life, we probably learn the most from a character's behavior!
- 02:29
If the same character is sobbing into their pillow, and crying “Why me?” to the heavens… [Boy crying into a pillow in bed]
- 02:35
…well, it’s a good bet they are, in fact, depressed.
- 02:39
You’re having fun now, right?? Hm.
- 02:42
Okay. You want a monkey or a giraffe? [Explaino making an animal balloon for a boy]
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